Some facts

One of the problems with climate change is the Omnivore's Dilemma: there's so much info out there, so many different perspectives on the best response, and the facts of climate change so scary, that I'd rather put my head in the sand most of the time.

Here's some of what I know:

Natural Gas:

• Natural gas is not a sustainable solution to our CO2 problem.
• Natural gas, when burned, emits less CO2 than oil or coal, which is good.
• The human 'production' of natural gas, however, especially fracking, releases a lot of 'waste' methane into the atmosphere.
• Methane is a much worse greenhouse gas than CO2.
• Most methane in the US comes from natural gas and coal extraction, transport, and processing. Most is not from agriculture as is commonly expressed.
• Fracking, an industry growing too fast for regulatory agencies to catch up, is a dangerous, polluting process. Water is a much more important resource than fuel, and fracking threatens our water supply. 

Nuclear Power:

• Nuclear power is potentially a sustainable solution to our climate change problem.  
• Nuclear power plants emit no CO2 directly, but mining, shipping, and processing uranium emits some. 
• Nuclear waste remains dangerous to most life for a duration from a few days to a few million years after its creation.
• Nuclear power is very tempting as an interim solution, and I'd be willing to support this option as an absolute last resort. It's dirty, dangerous, and non-renewable, and it's not guaranteed to take us into the 22nd century due to limited uranium supply. 

Tar Sands:

• Extremely destructive to local and distant ecosystems. 
• This extraction method is so energy intensive and dirty that the mere desire to extract oil using this method is a red flag that extraction companies are getting desperate. 
• Again, the fuel obtained from this source is so not worth it that we're better off using no fuel at all than this stuff.
• Most tar sands oil, like most of our coal, would be exported to other countries. Destroying our land and many north americans' livelihood solely for financial gain. 

Geo-engineering:

• While many of us really do believe that a technological solution to climate change will be found before things get too bad, this is extremely not likely. 
• Bill Gates and Richard Branson, among others, have been pumping money into this for over a decade, and they've got nothing.
• However, if we don't mitigate climate change soon, the powers that be will talk most of us into believing that geo-engineering solutions are our best hope.
• The most widely supported geo-engineering solution is dimming the sun. Spraying sulfer into the stratosphere to block some of the sun's energy would keep some heat out of the atmosphere. In addition to turning our sky from blue to yellowish, this 'solution' doesn't help the acidification of the oceans due to CO2 absorption, and it will also lead to changing climate and weather patterns. I am truly disturbed and nauseated that there are smart people out there actually promoting this idea. Another short-sighted, short-term 'solution'.

Renewable Energy:

• A conversion to renewable energy sources would not be easy.
• Manufacturing renewable energy systems uses fossil fuel mining, transport, and production techniques.
• It would take A LOT of renewable sources to balance our current energy needs. 
• It has been calculated that the world could run on 100% renewables definitely by 2050 and perhaps as early as 2030 (Stanford study).
• Renewable energy power supplies would have to be distributed and not centralized. This lends itself to local energy self-sufficiency and small scale, local economies. 
• This is the best option for us and the future of the planet. We should all get behind this now, but it needs to be done right, with a commitment to minimal environmental and social impact.

Free Market Capitalism:

• Any system that puts the needs of the 'market' above those of people and other life is wrong.
• Moving to sustainable energy sources is not economical, and it therefore is not going to be supported by the development of so-called market solutions.
• Capitalism, on a local scale, isn't a problem. It's the dissociation of resources, producers, employers, and consumers at the heart of the global market dissonance.
• Capitalism, as we do it, has a serious flaw - it neglects to consider natural systems and life itself as capital to be valued as an end in itself. Instead, these are viewed as sources of income, cogs in the machines that churn out money, means to an end. 
• The idea that we need energy solutions healthy for human and non-human life that satisfy the needs of the market too is a faulty premise; the needs of human and non-human life should be valued above all. 
• An economic system that continues to jeopardize the well-being of human and non-human life is not an ethical or viable economic system.
• (Don't assume that criticism of capitalism means I promote socialism.)

Values:

• Our best hope is for us all to stop justifying polluting ourselves, our environment, and other life. Nothing is worth the damage we're doing.
• We need to develop courage to pull our heads out of the sand and face the facts.

A little bit

A lot of people care enough to want to do something, but we don't know what to do. We can make better choices about what we buy, what we throw away, how much we consume. Those things help a little bit, and on the scale of one person, those little bits add up to a lot. But on the scale of civilization, those little bits add up to just a little bit.

"Every little bit helps," they say. But it helps only a little bit.

When I was 9 or 10 I read an illustrated Bible for a few weeks. The story of Moses going to talk to Pharaoh comes to my mind a lot. God wanted Moses to go to Pharaoh and ask for freedom. Moses said, "but what will I say?" And God said in response, "don't worry about it, I'll speak through you."

I loved the ease of surrendering to that trust, that the right words will come when I need them. And I surrender to that trust now too. Then it was God speaking through me, and now it's the beauty and verity of my values.

I value honesty, trust, and integrity. I value community, compassion, and freedom*. I value clean air, clean water, and healthy food.

If I'm acting from my values, any bit I give will make a difference. Usually just a little bit of difference, but maybe sometimes a big bit.

* I mainly mean ontological freedom, freedom from any constraints on our ability to be.

Hubris

It's hubris (and conditioning) that leads us to believe that we are the chosen ones, that any negative impact on life and our world is justifiable so long as we can point to a benefit to humanity. It's hubris (and conditioning) that leads us to believe that this way we do things is the best way to do them. 

It's also hubris (and conditioning) that justifies our belief that we can save the world, this pale blue dot. As if we are in charge, guardians of "a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena" (Carl Sagan). As George Carlin points out: "it's arrogant meddling, it's what got us into this trouble in the first place."

Geologically, Earth will be fine. Geologically, the Earth will continue spinning for the next 4-5 billion years or so, when the Sun's expansion puts to an end her time as a planet.

But rocks aren't what many of us are interested in protecting. We're interested in protecting life, and as far as we know, it's the only life the universe has.

Hubris: me and my bottom line are worth the collateral damage of clean air, clean water, and a thriving biosphere.

My cup of tea

When teaching students about engines and energy and power, talk invariably turns to great cars. What I try to get across to my students, though, is that if a great ride is measured only by acceleration and speed, then we're severely limiting the pleasure possible from the experience of driving.

I'm sitting in my seat here holding a cup of hot tea and enjoying the warmth it spreads through my core. There's so much sensation to this feeling, so much pleasure, and I wonder if there's even more...

So I think about the gas I burned on our stove to heat up the pot containing the water. This gas, American or Canadian produced and transported, is older than the oldest dinosaurs (probably), about 300 million years. Way back then, as now, the sun was up in the sky pumping photons to earth, where the photons were powering plant and algae growth. Those plants died, fell, and decomposed, and gravity and those 300 million years turned the sun's photons into natural gas.

Let there be light. 

So the heat in my belly from my cup of tea began its life in the thermonuclear furnace of the sun itself a very long time ago. And the physical sensation now has intellectual, emotional, and spiritual partners. 

There's more to all of our experiences, if we just look and feel. 

History knocking

The abolition of slavery in the new world depended "on a transformation in moral perception." 

It began with people being "willing to condemn an institution that had been sanctioned for thousands of years and who also strove to make human society something more than an endless contest of greed and power." (Davis)

We are the privileged ones, by birth and opportunity, so let's stand up and declare an end to exploitative, extractive, polluting business practices that sacrifice human health and well-being to satisfy avarice and arrogance. 

There is no "acceptable price for...depriving today's children their right to live in a world teaming with the wonders and beauties of creation." (Klein) This comfort we've found, these petty problems we deal with, are nothing compared with the plight of our fellow human and non-human life.

We sit on thrones of material complacency and squabble over conceptual differences while the world burns and her people thirst. All it takes is a willingness to be free from the constraints of ideological individualism and narcissistic self-gratification.

I want to see the masks of self-deception, spirit-deprivation, and distracting materialism come off.